There’s a little bit of Clough in Gemmill
SCOT GEMMILL has revealed he’s taking the Brian Clough approach to his new role as Scotland Under-21 boss.
The former Nottingham Forest and Everton midfielder took charge of his new-look side in Iceland in midweek for a European Championship tie where only pride was at stakefor the Scots.
Gemmill handed an entire team their debuts – eight starters and three subs – and there were plenty of encouraging signs, despite the 2-0 defeat.
The former Scotland international was schooled at Forest by legendary boss Clough, who famously led the City Ground club to two European Cups.
Clough’s methods today are regarded as somewhat eccentric and he was very much from the old school of management.
Yet Gemmill, whose father Archie was part of Forest’s European success, still believes there’s plenty in his style of management that’s relevant today.
He stated: “When I was a youth team player, my dad was actually my coach at Forest for a short period of time. And when you develop at a club like Forest in that era under Brian Clough, things were very easy to learn.
“They were very obvious. There wasn’t a lot of coaching going on. But just in terms of values and progression, you either quickly adjusted to it or you were no longer part of it. And he was a big part of that. So these values are still with me now definitely.
“The first thing I tell young players is that they are being judged all the time, on and off the pitch.
“Maybe that’s just to do with my values and my development under Brian Clough, but how you behave off the pitch is equally as important as how you behave on it.
“There is a real link between the person and the player. The players know their behaviour needs to be correct on and off the pitch.
“They know they need to show the right intelligence and mentality to deal with being in this environment, so I warn them beforehand.”
Gemmill admits he learned plenty from Clough and his unorthodox style.
He recalled: “You were never getting away with anything! It was engrained in the culture of the club and it all came from the manager. He didn’t miss anything.
“How your hair was, how you dressed, how you spoke. He would even correct you if you didn’t speak properly and said ‘yeah’ instead of ‘yes’.
“Brian Clough is an extreme example as he had so much presence and so much success by the time I worked for him. But a lot of his values still hold true.”